Dog barking late? I'll see you in livability court

"This judge don't play around," says Clarence Simmons, a city inspector. "He'll put them in jail if they don't follow his orders."

Still, Molony doesn't come off as rampant executioner. It quickly became clear that Molony sees that toughness can be effectively sweetened. In fact, he may have made history this week when he handed a defendant $5 out of his own pocket.

The man, Mike Grimm, had run up over $1,000 in parking tickets and had paid $410 to get his car out of impoundment. But he had a pretty good excuse: After 9/11, the infantryman was called to his Virginia National Guard unit to serve. Determining that soldier Grimm owed no more and had even overpaid, Molony handed him a refund.

"It's more than I had when I walked in here," says the relieved soldier.

And then there's the case of the doctor who wouldn't garden. Walter Luszki has lived at his Maple Street house for 51 years. According to neighbors, that's how long it's been since the lawn was cut. In the country, such a garden might grow, but there are rules in the city against out-of-control bougainvilleas.

Hoisting cardboard maps painted with permanent marker and white-out in front of onlookers in onlookers sitting in the court's plain plastic chairs, Dr. Luzki vowed his innocence, but Judge Molony had another idea.

He offered to call Luszki's nearest relative, a professor at Harvard, to come down South to help weed. But finally, Molony decided that a county jail work crew (a chain-gang type of situation) would trim the big plot. Luzki will have to pay the administrative fees. "You've lived here 51 years, and you're 88 years old, and I don't want to fine you $300 bucks," says Molony. "We're going to get you the appropriate help to clean it up."

But in the sad case of Peaches and Pumpkin, the defendant received less compassion. Charged with neglecting the two pit bulls, the owner insisted that her husband says "you treat the dogs better than me." But Molony was unimpressed.

"I have a dog who's almost as close to me as my sons," he said. "I don't think you're a bad person, but those dogs will not ever go back to you - it's over. This court is for the livability of every creature in the city."

Indeed, it was tough to find a critic of the court even amidst those who felt the sting of Molony's mallet. Earl Copeland, a tour bus operator, was fined $200 and sentenced to 30 days in jail for pulling his bus over in a neighborhood. But Mr. Copeland took his sentence in stride. "I think the court will actually help curb all the illegal operators who give us all a bad name," he says.

For Inwood, the sleep-deprived plaintiff, the Livability Court effectively ended a two-year-long search for midnight justice. "I don't want to punish anyone," Inwood says. "All I want is some sleep."

Trigger was remanded to the pound for 30 days until his owner, Birdie Frazier, could find him a new home. Ms. Frazier's jail sentence was suspended.

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